Now, whatever may be our theory with regard to the origin or formation of these solid masses of the globe, this must be concluded for certain,--that what we see remaining is but a specimen of what had been removed,--and that we actually see the operations by which that great work had been performed: we only need to join in our imagination that portion of time which, upon the surest principles, we are forced to acknowledge in this view of present things. CHAP. IV. _The same Subject continued, in giving still farther Views of the Dissolution of the Earth._ To have an idea of this operation of running water changing the surface of the earth, one should travel in the Alps; it is there that are to be seen all the steps of this progression of things, and so closely connected in the scene which lies before one, that there is not required any chain of argument, or distant reasoning from effect to cause, in order to understand the natural operations of the globe, in the state of things which now appears. So strongly are the operations of nature marked in those scenes, that even a description is sufficient to give a lively idea of the process which had been transacted. With this view, I shall here transcribe, from the _Tableau de la Suisse_, a description of that remarkable passage by the mountain of St. Gothard, from Switzerland to Italy, hoping, that, even independent of the illustration hereby given to the theory, the reader will be pleased to see such a picture of that country as will either excite new ideas in a person who has not seen such scenes, or call up those which it is proper for a naturalist to have[4]. [Footnote 4: Tableaux de la Suisse Discours, etc. p. 113. Route d'Altorf au St. Gothard.]